My name is Morgan!...And I want to rock your social media world! ;) I LOVE what I do and I want to instill that same passion into YOU and your BUSINESS! 
Numbers No Longer Matter
Now-a-days, when I see someone with 50K+ followers or more, I do not follow them.
Nine times out of ten, when they have that many followers and I take a gander at their Twitter stream, it's nothing but self-promotion. There is NO engagement. Why would I want to follow someone who isn't even going to talk to me?I like my little communities.
Without my small, tight nit communities, I wouldn't be as engaged as I am today. I wouldn't have formed these awesome relationships with real live people. I wouldn't have the knowledge that I possess today. I wouldn't be where I am today. Period. I had a conversation with someone on my Facebook page the other day about how some Facebook brand pages who have 100K+ likes, have maybe only 5% engagement. When my Facebook page that barely has 60 likes, has a whopping 60% engagement rate! If a Facebook page has a large number of likes but their engagement is almost nonexistent, then there's a serious problem there.I shy away from large numbers.
Large numbers do not impress me anymore. They don't even show me that they're well-liked because if I don't see that engagement, then their followers are just that - followers. They're not actively engaged with what that person has to say. Large numbers can be intimidating to a lot of people who are new to social media. Because they start thinking, "Where do I fit in? Does any of this even matter?" My point is, when you're thinking about your social media strategy, don't worry about the numbers. Create a real, lively community of long-lasting relationships with your fans/followers/likes and the numbers will come naturally.It's all about engagement.Create that group of engaged individuals and when you do promote your own stuff, they'll be more than happy to help you get the word out about it, because you've been such an awesome person. I'm not going to lie, it's going to take a while to build up that loyal, engaged following. However, within 6 months to a year, if you're consistent and truly committed, then you'll have no problem finding the right people who will enjoy what you have to say and you will enjoy what they have to say.
Are you still stressing about the numbers?
With 11+ years of internet marketing experience, Morgan started Sociable Boost to help small businesses create social, engaging & actionable strategies! Morgan is passionate about what she does and hopes to instill that same passion into YOU!
I couldn’t agree with this more.
I 100,000. or even 1,000,000 fans or followers or whatever doesn’t mean jack diddly squat if they are all spammers or non of them engage or are otherwise interested in connecting.
I’d much prefer a smaller tight nit community in which we have a mutual and sincere interest in one another.
Gerald Weber recently posted..When The Going Gets Tough, The Links Get Blamed
Hi Gerald!
Completely agree! A tight nit community is SO important for creating value and engagement for your brand.
Thanks for the awesome comment!
Reading this article makes me happy like I was being confirmed that I had done a right thing to do. I had just unfollowed most of Twitter user I had been following in which I had found them to be exactly like you have said in your sharing. Autobot, self-promotion and no engagement to others. And yes, why would I bother if they do not even exist?
Thank you for the article.
Don’t feel bad about unfollowing someone who you just don’t feel that connection with. You don’t want to be ‘just another number’, so make those follows/likes/circles count!
So glad I could help! Thank you for the comment. 
Hi Morgan, great post!
I agree with you 100% . There’s value in engagement. Numbers may be impressive to some, but there’s no value in numbers without that engagement factor.
Lately when I visit other brand pages the first thing I do is look at their fan count in conjunction with their “talking about this” count.
Thanks for the great read!
Melissa Agnes recently posted..How to know if you need a social media monitoring team
Hey Melissa!
Yes comparing their numbers with their engagement is a great technique to do with all platforms these days. It really tells you a lot about the brand.
Thanks for the comment!
Sometimes it’s harder to convince 6 friends to grab a beer after work than it is to send a message to 100K+ followers. Why? Because I know these 6 people personally and want to make sure everyone has a nice time out. With a 100k+ followers I’d be happy for a 5% response rate. Again, because I really don’t know these people on a personal basis. Fortunately for me, that’s a problem I don’t have to deal with at the moment. I don’t have anything close to a 100k+ followers. Last time I checked Twitter I believe my cat had more followers than I did, but then again my cat’s really social. Excellent article! Perhaps, I’ll go tweet something and give the cat a run for the money. Cheers!
Nick Brand recently posted..Why I Sell Free Web Hosting Service
Hi Nick!
You are right on the money! I’m not so much knocking the fact that people have 100K+ followers, but more so to the fact that people think they NEED that many followers in order to matter.
Just keep in mind that the more you engage with your community, the better off you’ll be in general and when you do reach that 100K+ followers, you’ll know it’s because you’re sociable and fun to be around, not because of some automated software.
Good luck getting your numbers up past your cat.
Thanks for the comment!
Hi Morgan,
This was a great post!
Engagement is the key. Social Media should be um… SOCIAL! The social media platforms allow individuals, and businesses to reach the masses, but when the conversation turns into a one-way stream of information, or promotion, value is lost.
I agree with concentrating on a small base of individuals and engaging with them as you cultivate a quality following, one in which those you interact with benefit as much as you do.
I also believe that the focus on these individuals will return future benefits in the form of referrals, and more followers that are ready to engage.
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Steve
Hi Steve!
I SO agree. I love your statement, “but when the conversation turns into a one-way stream of information, or promotion, value is lost.” That’s a great way to put it and could not agree with you more.
Exactly! Down the line you may get 100K+ followers, but before that time, at least you have built that following honestly and engagingly.
You are right again! It’s a give and give relationship, as in, when I give something to my followers, they usually are happy to return the favor in one way or another. Whether that’s just a retweet of my content, a comment on my latest post or even a referral. It’s all helpful and hopefully the giving cycle continues.
Thanks for the comment. Hope your weekend is going great!
I look at engagement the first time I see someone who has followed me. If I go to twitter instead of Hoot Suite, I look at followers. I will open each new follower into a new tab. I may have 20 new browser tabs open. I’ll look at the timeline of each tweep and find 80% of them do not engage. I immediately close their tab and forget about them forever. The other 20% may not exactly be in a niche I care about, but if they engage, I still follow back. Would love to have you follow me as long as you don’t have 100,000 followers. : )
Brian recently posted..Top Ten Pizza Jokes and Stories
Hi Brian,
I have the exact same system (spooky).
I, too, will follow people that are not within my niche if they’re super engaged. I’m following one person who sells fun cupcake mixes and she is WAAAAAY engaged. Every tweet I see is either a personal tweet or some sort of engaging tweet.
So yeah, engagement is key. Thanks much for the comment!
I only have 489 followers. But I’ve made some friends. I’ve interviewed a couple of my followers for one of my websites, gotinterviews.com, and enjoy myself the best I can. I do have other twitter accounts where I do a lot more self promotion of various websites. When I do that I sometimes feel ashamed of myself. But I don’t try to self-promote to my followers, but to those following various hashtags. I know that’s bad too, but, I’m trying hard to get visitors and not much else has worked lately.
I look forward to tweeting you since I’m now following you on Twitter.
Brian recently posted..Top Ten Pizza Jokes and Stories
I used to feel the same way as you, always feeling ashamed for self-promoting, but after a while I realized, “How am I going to get anyone to visit my site if I don’t self promote?”
You are your best advocator, so you should definitely self-promote. Use the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time you’re sharing/retweeting/engaging with others and then 20% of the time you’re self-promoting. This way you’re still being active in your community but you’re also sharing your stuff.
I look forward to getting to know you better!
By the way, I love your gointerviews and pizza sites, very cool ideas!
Thanks. I’ll definitely talk to you more about them later. Now, back to work : )
Brian recently posted..Top Ten Pizza Jokes and Stories
hi morgan…
counting the numbers or getting more and more followers isnt the great thing..
the important thing is engagement and your involvement…with everybody
thats what matters,,
thanks for such a nice post
prabhat recently posted..How to transfer files via Bluetooth on iDevice
Hi Prabhat,
Exactly! Engagement is far more important.
Thanks for the comment!
I can completely agree that too many people are obsessed with the number of followers, likes, pluses, etc. I think a smaller community that has a great niche is the way to go. The bigger communities end up drowning out all the quality content anyway. I like your ideas!
Jesse W recently posted..Best Buy TV Sales This Weekend 2012
Hi Jesse,
I totally agree with that; the bigger communities can have great content, but they’re just so big that it’s hard to be heard or feel like someone other than just another number. Great insight! Thanks for the comment.
Morgan, just wanted to give you the heads up that I do have a few different websites that will show up on comments depending on what I am working on that day. I do not want you to think I am trying to spam your comments; I really do love your stuff!
Jesse Wojdylo recently posted..Capital One Bad Credit Personal Loans
It’s cool.
Yes, numbers mean nothing if you have no engagement. Great post – I found you from Blog Engage. If you engage first numbers will follow in time.
Lisa recently posted..New Time, New Look, What’s New With You?
Hi Lisa,
Glad to know you found me from BlogEngage, it’s one of my fav communities!
And you are right, without engagement, you got nothin’.
Yes, I fully agree with that engagement is far more important than number of followers. My question is… can we catch both fishes at the same time? I mean grow massive size of followers as well as high engagement? How about engagement among followers? Can we have massive number of followers on a specific website that has highly engaged communities?
I am a newbie in social media and just started working on Facebook, WordPress Blog and Twitter to promote my startup and your answer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Ji recently posted..Relationship between Success and Happiness
Hi Ji!
The short answer is yes. But there’s something very important to keep in mind; unless you’re Red Bull, Apple, Coca Cola, or another big name brand, you’re not going to get millions of fans. You may not even get thousands of fans (though you most likely will, in time). Even getting hundreds of fans can take quite a bit of perseverance. The fans that you do find, are going to be very targeted fans that like you for you and if you’re engaging and getting out there, you’re going to find people who truly want to engage with you back. So you’re going to find a loyal following. So no matter the number, you want that loyal, ravenous following that will not only grow your numbers but will also engage with you because they like what you do and they think you’re pretty awesome, too.
Does that answer your question? Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck!!